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I won't call him Mayor MeniNO* no mo'

So Tuesday of last week I used the mayor's online complaint/suggestion form to bitch about the rampant illegal parking in a Fenway/Kenmore resident zone on Ipswich Street during Sox games. I suggested making the street a tow zone during the hours it's residents only (after 6pm). To my surprise, a nice lady from the Department of Transportation (or some such agency) called me yesterday to follow up.(!) She gave me two pieces of information that made my day. First, the fine for illegal parking in a resident zone is up to $40 from $20, so it's roughly keeping pace with the cost to park legally on a neighborhood lot during baseball games. Second, she's calling the situation to the attention of a Jimmy Mansfield (I forget his job title but I think he's a state official). She said that during BU (I'm pretty sure it was BU, but it could have been BC) football games, the surrounding streets are temporary tow zones for nonresidents, and they're working on getting the same status for the Fens during Sox games. So yay for me, I'm civically active. :P

* "Mayor MeniNO" was on a sign held by a striking city worker a couple years ago.

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Comments

BU football games? Maybe she meant BU crew paddling?

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it's one thing for my friends in Seattle to confuse the two, but SERIOUSLY...

Oh, and BU hasn't had a football team for 8 years now - not that they were even worth mentioning back then, either.

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I was gonna mention that, regarding the lack of football team at BU...

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That's where we disagree. The Terrirers had their moments. More moments than they had fans in the stands, come to think of it. For excellent canineball on the Green Line, you still have the Huskies!

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They have them near BC. The zone is mostly in Boston, near Cleveland Circle, and also extends into Newton. There are areas that are not designated as residential parking on most days, but which are designated as "NO PARKING DURING BC HOME GAMES EXCEPT WITH RESIDENTIAL STICKER" or something like that. I think the sign specifies 2 hours before and 1 hour after the games. They're one of the better parking signs too, because they actually have a schedule sticker stuck to them every year, so you know when the BC home games actually ARE.

The only downside is that they're more lenient about giving out temporary passes for the football game zones too; I have a neighbor who has her car registered in another state (grr) so can't get a resident sticker, but was able to get an exemption for football game towing by showing mail addressed to her at the address. Irritating that they'll spend tax dollars on giving her the sticker when she doesn't pay vehicle-related taxes here. And that they'll go by a piece of mail (they didn't even require a utility bill, she said), when people can receive mail just about anywhere. Let's hope people don't start getting mail sent to their workplace or a friend's place in the Fenway to get parking exemptions there. Grr.

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...regarding the no-resident-sticker fine, I'm all for it, but I wonder how effective it actually is. There are a few areas in the city where I'll risk parking in a resident spot with my Brighton resident sticker, hoping they won't notice it's not the right sticker, which they usually don't. I mean, I'm willing to pay the fine and all if they do ticket me. I personally won't block a fire hydrant, because that's a safety issue, but I will park too close to one without blocking it, since the fine for parking near a hydrant is only $15. So they're encouraging people to block hydrants rather than park in a resident spot. WTF?

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Back when I had a car, I always wished they would tow (actually, they do from the resident parking area on Boylston across from the Victory Gardens), but simply assumed the city wouldn't listen... So, congratulations on taking some initiative on behalf of the neighborhood!

Raising the fine just to the going rate for parking isn't going to help, it's still worth it to take the chance of not getting ticketed (and evading paying the ticket is easier than evading the lot operator) - but the risk of coming back and finding that SUV replaced by an actual neighborhood resident's car should be an effective deterrent for those suburbanites without the sense to take the T in...

Mike - Host of Fenway Views

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let's see if they actually do it! :P

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